CURATED READS FOR GEN Z—AND THEIR Z-CURIOUS COLLEAGUES

first up

Welcome back! This week, we’re looking at how Gen Z eats. Nom nom.

Let’s imagine for a moment that there’s a new Gen Z–themed grab-and-go restaurant filled with the generation’s favorite foods. You find out about it on YouTube or TikTok after your favorite influencer posts their menu must-haves. As you walk in, you place your order at a kiosk rather than with a human. The menu includes a hodgepodge of fare that has recently exploded on social media—like baked feta pasta, an extravagant butter board, the viral “tunacado” sandwich, and $24 smoothies whipped up by your favorite celebrity. There’s also a caviar section because Gen Zers have a literal taste for luxury to match their figurative one. 

Capturing the food preferences of an entire generation of consumers is a tough nut to crack. While avocado toast reflected the zeitgeist in which millennials came of age, Gen Zers’ tastes are a little all over the menu, so to speak. Still, there are some consistent behaviors that these younger consumers have come to exhibit. 

Gen Zers prefer the convenience of prepared meals over a grocery store haul, according to McKinsey senior partner Kabir Ahuja and coauthors. Per senior partner Jessica Moulton and coauthors, these consumers are among the biggest advocates of healthy and sustainable eating but also admit to not understanding exactly how to do so. Partner Ludovic Meilhac and coauthors report that Gen Zers are more likely than baby boomers and Gen Xers to say they prefer nondairy and fair-trade ice cream options. (For a closer look at Gen Z’s interest in sustainable eating, check out this edition of Mind the Gap.) “Eatertainment,” or activity-centric restaurants (think Chuck E. Cheese for adults), is enjoying a Gen Z–fueled resurgence. Gen Zers’ demand for personalized products has also leaked into food, as fast-food employees must contend with requests for special orders that originate on social media.

Speaking of social media, the hashtag #foodtok, which hosts viral recipe and food hack content, has garnered around 45 billion views on TikTok alone, according to the platform’s data. Niche subgenres of food videos, including “ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) cooking”—that warm, spinal sensation you get from watching the kind of stimulating videos popularized by influencers like Emily Mariko, among others—and “mukbang,” have also come to define internet food culture.  

The restaurants and food brands that lean into these quirky corners of online food culture are best poised to capture Gen Zers’ appetite and wallets. Just maybe hold the cheese?

VISUALIZE IT

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Raiders of the lost spark. NASA’s chief engineer for robotic operations explains how the robots sent to Mars use AI to gather information from millions of light years away.
 
Conscious Chinese consumers. Slightly more than 40 percent of surveyed Chinese consumers say they are committed to eating little or no meat, similar to the proportions of UK and US respondents who say the same.

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NOT US; STILL GREAT

‘Say less.’ This phrase, equivalent to telling someone you understand them, is just one slang phrase among many that Gen Z has helped popularize, as captured in a skit on Saturday Night Live. [Fast Company]

Thinkin’ ’bout you. The office romance, once verboten, doesn’t seem to bother Gen Z, whose members are likelier than their older coworkers to be open to having a workplace relationship. [WaPo]

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CROSSWORD

— Edited by Alexandra Mondalek, editor, New York